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Sunday, February 16, 2014

Episode 125--A Mountainous Critique!

In this latest episode, The Ninjas have foiled the nefarious schemes of Dark Lord Baggadix and return to you with a series of critiques thanks to brave friends of the show, Veronica Jones, Kim Myatt (aka Ysvyri), and Denzel A Jackson!
They placed their work up on the chalkboard and we were allowed to offer our thoughts on their excellent images!
Many thanks to all who submitted their work.
We only had time this round for three critiques and your willingness to help is much appreciated!

The very generous Drew Baker produced paint overs for each piece as we discussed them and they can be found below.

More episodes are on the way as our fearless coordinator and ( slightly overwhelmed new dad), Jeremy is back on track!
Thanks for tuning in!
We hope everyone finds this episode helpful as you head into your studios this week.

22 comments:

Just curious if any ninjas would be attending Spectrum Live next month? If so, I look forward to finally meeting one or several of you. If not, would any of you like me to attempt to gather audio content for the mountain?

I've been wondering about severall things lately, and in case you are looking for ideas about what to talk about, I'll share what's been on my mind.

How can one achieve a good transition between art school and work? What can you do while in school to make sure that you will get to work with art later?

I've been wondering if it would be wise to have a presence with art, for instance online, whilst still in school. Is it good to start well in advance to make yourself visible, or is it better to wait until you've learned more?

Are there good ways to start working in art whilst still in school? Maybe it's not a good idea to do too much at the same time, but on the other hand, if you are somehow able to work in some way, then you won't have to be quite as uncertain when school is over about how to get there. Maybe there certain types of work that would be well suited for this combination? Or maybe there are good ways to get a start at it during summer vacations?

Could it be a good idea to attempt selling prints, or selling originals whilst still in school? Although it might be difficult to find interest for it, and probably wouldn't be mcuh help financially, it seems like a time saving way of both getting a precense and staring to work. Particularly through a site like Deviant art.

Maybe you have some thoughts about this? If you do, I sure would love to get your perspective.

Tekopp, speaking from my own life experiences, an online presence is a must to get any work. If you're comfortable doing freelance work while taking classes, you should absolutely be setting up an online portfolio and attempt to get your work noticed. There was a point in college when I was taking 15 credits of studio classes in addition to a full time work load as a freelance artist. Aside from making me a zombie for the duration of that semester, all that work(if you're wondering it was between 10 and 12 hours of actual drawing every day, with a finals drawing marathon of 23 hours)vastly improved my skills as an artist and landed me consistent work with a tabletop RPG which I'm still doing work for regularly 2 1/2 years later. Regarding the websites, (again this is personal experience) Deviant art is not going to get you work or move prints unless you're already well known. It does offer a pretty decent portfolio site for its premium members however, which is the main reason to have a DA account. All the serious clients that contacted me first (rather than me submitting work to a company and getting a response) have come through Epilogue.net. Epilogue is a juried art site (or at least it was at one point. I don't believe my most recent work went through a judging process. so I may be misinforming you right now), so only work of an acceptable quality can be put up. This gives you an alright idea of where you're at skill wise, and gives potential clients reassurance that the work they think is good actually is. another site that juries work is Infected By Art. They wont allow you to have a gallery if you can't provide 5 quality pieces.

My last thought about school in general if to not link it to your career goals. I did for way too long, and I feel it just held me back. You're there to improve your skills, network with other creatives, and learn other valuable information that you wouldn't otherwise seek out. View it as development of yourself and your career rather than a step toward your career. A diploma doesn't really get you anywhere in this profession, skills and connections do. So viewing it as " I'll get a diploma, then I'll get a job" only prevents you from seeking out opportunities early.

Again though, these are my thoughts alone. I'd strongly suggest listening to other artists talk about their lives and careers and make an educated decision based on their thoughts and your own life. good places to start are this podcast, SidebarNation podcast, and illustration island podcast. I'd also suggest supplementing your art education in school with online art education. Youtube is a wonderful resource and there are tons of tutorial videos to get you started.

Razwit, thank you for sharing your thoughts with me. I do not view school as a path to a diploma, but a way to get important skills. I am however worried that maybe even if I do get the skills, I might not get from the school and to the work. So many people do not. And so I'm trying to figure out a good plan to be more sure that I can get there, and maybe avoid a big gap between ending school and getting relevant work, if that's possible.

I passed the word onto the gang, but haven't heard back.I do see that our own Drew Baker will be present. :)

If you find yourself with a free moment to get some clean audio, I would say go for it and I'll drop it into the show! But don't go too far out of your way. It can be tough to get good audio and balance it with a fun con experience.Enjoy SFAL , you lucky so-and-so! Wish I could go and bring my family to the show!

tekopp--I think those are fine questions for the show and I'll ask the gang on the next episode ( after I finish editing the latest show---gods, I'm slow right now).

There are examples of people who had the chops to freelance while still in school. It can be tough to balance pro work while still developing burgeoning skills.Drew Struzan noted that he sold his school assignments to pay for his education during his college years...

One of the things I really appriciate about your podcast is the insight it offers into what having art as a job can be like. I haven't met many people in non-digital life that has got an art job, so it has been impossible before to have a concept of what that means or how you might get there.